The People’s Liberation Army is denying that its massive air force and missile drills in eastern and central China have been responsible for thousands of commercial flight cancellations and delays since July 20.
The flight woes have wreaked havoc on Chinese and international travelers during the peak travel season, provoking outrage inside and outside of China.
The PLA will continue its airspace restrictions through Aug. 15.
Feeling the heat of mounting outrage, the People’s Liberation Army Daily, the PLA’s official newspaper, issued a statement Tuesday denying that the drills are the primary cause of the flight delays. It also warned China’s Internet opinion leaders not to “ceaselessly mock and bad-mouth the government and the PLA” by echoing international criticism of the PLA on this matter.
The statement, which was carried quickly by the People’s Daily Online, the official mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, was vague about the “real” cause of the flight woes, blaming unpredictable summer weather: “In every summer, there are typhoons, thunderstorms and other foul weather conditions. There have been flight delays in the years when there were no military drills.”
The People’s Liberation Daily did acknowledge, however, that the PLA drills are one reason for the delays, not the “primary” reason.” It stated that anybody who disagrees with this explanation is harboring evil intentions against China.
Addressing popular outrage online, the PLA statement said “we believe the overwhelming majority of netizens [Chinese Internet users] are rational, understanding the close relationship between national security and individual life because there will be no happiness in your family without a strong national defense.”
COMRADE TO COMRADE
During Chinese Supreme Leader Xi Jinping’s visit to Cuba last week, Fidel Castro told him that he has had a lifelong regret: not having the chance to meet Mao Zedong, the communist dictator responsible for the deaths of at least 70 million Chinese during his 27-year rule.
Mr. Xi, who fancies himself as Mao’s true inheritor, sported a broad smile with appreciative nodding.
A Mao admirer, Mr. Castro abandoned Taiwan and switched Cuba’s diplomatic recognition to Beijing months after his 1959 Cuban revolution.
But Mr. Castro had to walk a tightrope because of his greater reliance on Moscow for military and economic aid. From the 1960s to the end of 1980s, China and the Soviet Union were dire enemies who competed over Marxist ideological purity.
As a result, Mr. Castro did not go to Beijing until after the collapse of the Soviet Union and a halt in aid from Moscow.
His took his first trip to Beijing in 1995, when Mr. Castro viewed the embalmed body of Mao in his massive mausoleum in the center of Tiananmen Square. The visit produced substantial deals between Cuba and Beijing leaders, who had grown determined to increase China’s influence in Latin America. Since then, Mr. Castro has received more heads of state from China than from any other country.
China has used Cuba and Mr. Castro as convenient venues to vent Beijing’s anti-U.S. sentiment. A noted moment rose in 2001, when a U.S. Navy EP-3 surveillance plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet and was forced to crash-land at a Chinese military base on Hainan island.
President George W. Bush’s repeated phone calls to President Jiang Zemin went unanswered because the passive-aggressive Chinese leader sneaked out of Beijing and flew to meet Mr. Castro in Havana, where he composed an anti-American poem to vent his outrage over the incident while hailing Cuba as the foremost outpost of the world’s anti-imperialism cause.
Mr. Castro paid his second visit to China in 2003, when he was welcomed as a world revolutionary hero.
• Miles Yu’s column appears Fridays. He can be reached at mmilesyu@gmail.com and @Yu_miles.
• Miles Yu can be reached at yu123@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.